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December 3, 2012

25 reasons to smile this December

Excluding good ol' Scrooge, most of us are definite fans of this month, no matter if you observe Christmas, Hanukkah Kwanzaa or any other special event. December is a unique month, for it caps off the year, but first it make sure that we get more celebratory fun and activity squeezed in than you shake a spring of holly at all. So often through the month, serenity and hecticness jostle one another for top billing, and sometimes that holiday season tug-of-war can start to wear you out, or worse perhaps, lessen how festive you feel.

Epic mall crowds, eye-rolling worthy office parties, mile-long menus to cook, stacks of cards to send out (let's face it, they don't always get out the door in November by any stretch of the imagination!), and myriad other demands of the season can all too quickly depilate one of their energy and happiness levels. On the other hand, you may be able to enjoy a more relaxed holiday season free of some of the aforementioned points, and instead simply yearn to further bolster the festive mood you're in this year.

In either case - and whatever other situation you may find yourself in at the moment - I feel that this chilly, frost covered first Monday of December would be a fantastic time to share twenty-five things (one each for every day between the first of the month and Christmas Day) that are usually associated closely with December. These entries always bring a hefty smile to my face, no matter how much the the holiday season may have (temporarily) frazzled my nerves (and, momentarily, sent me wishing for July again).

Long time readers may recall that back in the early days of November 2010, I wrote a list of 50 reasons to love the holiday season; this post shares much in common with that one, however instead of describing today's entries in detail, I'll let a charming group of images do all the talking for me.

Time is already a premium at this point in the season, and I thought you might appreciate the moments shaves by just scrolling through a fun pile of vintage winter and Christmas themed images, partnered with the brief description of each listing itself.

Here's to all the best points of December, starting with this festive roundup!

1. Santa Claus

2. Tobogganing

3. Cookies, cookies, and more cookies!

4. Dressing especially glamorous for fancy parties and formal events

5. Listening to vintage Christmas music

6. Advent calendars

7. Visiting people with your arms loaded full of holiday gifts

8.Sears Wish Book catalogs

9.Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas

10. Going home for the holidays

11. Hanging up your stocking

12. Trimming the tree and decking the halls

13. Going ice skating on an open-air pond

14. Breath-taking holiday light displays

15. Peppermint everything!

16. Pets in cute holiday bows and outfits

17. Knowing that you've gotten someone exactly what they wanted

18. Cooking oodles of delicious holiday foods in the company of those you love

19. Vintage pink Christmas trees

20. Gorgeous winter and Christmas themed vintage magazine covers

21. Raiding the fridge for one of the best midnight snacks of the year thanks to Christmas dinner leftovers

22. Awesome holiday mail days!

23. Mistletoe

24. Taking tranquil winter walks in the great outdoors

25. Christmas/the winter holiday season comes but once a year!

{To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective source.}

♥ ♥ ♥

I love the final month of the year, plain and simple. Even in the busiest, most chaotic or harried moments, it really doesn't take much at all to help me snap right back - with a Christmas cracker "pop" of intensity - into a very chipper state of mind.

The reasons above are usually always able to do just that, as are many others that have been a part of my annual holiday celebration since I was knee-high to a snowflake. What are some of your most beloved causes for good spirits and merriment this month?

As with all other times of the year, there will always be good and bad moments throughout December, but it's my deepest hope that the positive far outweigh the stressful for all of you, and that you get to partake in as many of your favourite reasons to smile this month as possible.

42 comments:

I adore December, I love seeing the lights and the decorations and hearing the music. One of my favourite things is to emerge from a shop into a cold street festooned with Christmas lights where I can hear a brass band playing carols in the not so distant distance. It's also my birthday this month, so extra special for me!

Your list is just darling! Ahhh its nice to be reminded why this season is so special, not just religiously but also all of these fabulous (often pagan) rituals. I adore rituals and looking fwd to that something special around the corner. I cannot wait to see my babies eyes when they see that Santa ate their cookies (we make special reindeer cookies) and that he came to leave them gifties. Its just all so sweet to be together in our pjs and watch movies all day long, play with the new toys and stuff our faces. Thank you for reminding me all the joy that December has to offer! xox

This is a wonderful idea for a post. I love the santa photo and the glamorous dress one best. That dress is my fantasy. Santa wouldn't know what to do with himself if he showed up and I had that number on!Happy December to you!Jamiehttp://chatterblossom.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much for this! It helps set the tone for the month at hand and hopefully as you said it will be filled with more joy than any down points that might sneak in here and there throughout the busy holiday season!Hugs,Beth P

I love so many of these, too! Except for one. I don't know how to skate. :-( I've always wanted to learn. Growing up I watched the glamorous figure skaters and I wished that someday I could at least ice skate. Maybe someday.

Hi sweet Sean, I wish we lived nearby, I'd be so happy to try and teach you. While I never competed at any kind of real level, I took years of figure skating lessons as a child, spent scads of time on the ice each winter while I was growing up (it's a lot harder for me now due to my health, but I still try to get in a day of skating most winters) and have enjoyed teaching a few others how to skate in the years since.

I love December because of the whole pre-christmas happenings. Baking, candles, snow! All the good things ;) For me christmas is filled with beloved traditions: I know that I´ll be visiting my parents for a few days (which is always a horrible 9 hour train ride but totally worth it), that the whole family will meet at my grandparents and that I´ll be the one to decorate the christmas tree. This year it will be extra special because I´ll meet my cousins little son (4 months) for the first time. So excited :)

A gorgeous collection of images. I remember we had some Noma lights. I loved the boxes, because even then they had a vintage feel to them.I love the whole build up to Christmas. I think people forget to enjoy it sometimes, because they think they are so busy.

Wow, I love all those vintage images you found! Perfect. Unfortunately Sydney just finished with a heat wave instead of frosty cold mornings, but I'm ready for a bit of warmth. I just have my fingers crossed for no more heat waves! Merry Christmas!

What a completely and totally delightful post, Jessica. You chose such beautiful images, especially the pink Christmas trees and the gals in their fur coats. Yes, I know, fur isn't "politically correct" anymore, but I love it anyway.

I got a kick out of the mailman at the door. I haven't had a walking, front door-delivering mailman since 1975!! The streetside boxes, to which the mailman drives, have been standard in my life for over 3 decades now. And, if I receive something too big for the box, he honks his horn, and I am supposed to go out to his truck to receive it. If I happen to be out or don't hear him honk, he will sometimes leave it at my door...but sometimes, he leaves a slip in my box and I have to go to the post office to pick it up.

Oh, by the way, no tobogganing for this gal!

I love A Charlie Brown Christmas. That is one of our family's must-watch holiday movies. We were intending to watch it last night, but time got away from us, so we will get to it later in the week.

Hi sweet Patti, thank you very much for your lovely comment. I'm very sorry to hear that you do deal with such headaches when it comes to getting your mail. We had an often nightmarish situation with the mail in both places we lived in Ontario, as well, so you have my complete and total sympathy there. Things have been considerably better here in Penticton (the mail system is never perfect, but just anything would have been an improvement over what we were dealing with in Ontario), which is quite nice.

I'm not able to toboggan anymore due to my health, so I just enjoy watching others do it now (more often than not, the same goes for ice skating, too). I miss it sometimes though - but at least I get spared all those long walks back up the hill! :)

This is THE MOST BEAUTIFUL Christmas inspired collection I have ever seen! I love them all, especailly the pink Snow on Snoew and the I'll be Home for Christmas. You are so good to us all by taking the time to collect and share these images with us! I can only imagine how long it would have taken. xx Shauna

Hi Kim, I'm sorry that you feel that way. Many years ago I worked in retail at one of the busiest malls in Calgary, Alberta (and also worked retail at various other places in my younger days). Rather than instilling negative feelings in me about the holidays, I actually found that the exact opposite was true. I loved knowing that I was helping people find great gifts, enjoyed the buzz of energy that the crowds had, and adored decorating the shops I worked at for the holidays. I completely understand though why you feel that way, but really hope that this post at least got you a little closer to feeling to wonderfully festive this year.

Some of those make me so envious - skating outdoors and "walking in a winter wonderland" here in Australia we have the hottest days of the year to look forward to and no matter how much we try, it never seems as Christmas-y as it looks for those in the Northern Hemisphere. That being said I always look forward to Christmas lunch (so much delicious food) and our girls in their annual santa photo. This year will be our 13th Santa photo and it really gives such a delightful glimpse at them each year - watching the grow and develop into people with their own tastes. Best part of xmas easily.

You had me at number one with the lovely vintage ladies and Mr. Claus. Or so I thought until I reached number three. Oh delicoius cookies. But then it got better with number four. That dress is absolultely phenomenal.

As a side note number ten (Greyhound) looks very similar to four vintage ad’s I purchased at a library closing a few years ago. I will try my hardest to remember to take photos and post them. They are from a silver collection, a Pitney Bowes ad, and the other two escape me at the moment. Which is terrible considered they all hang right above my iron board in my dressing room.

What keeps me in good spirits and merriment all December long is the beauty of snow outside when I am warm inside sipping Italian hot chocolate, fresh cranberries at the grocery, and all of the simple decorations. The small enjoyments of the season.

I wouldn't survive winter without Christmas. ILOVEIT! I gladly admit that I am Christmas Crazy. :) I loved your vintage pictures, so lovely, especially the ladies in fur coats flanking Santa. DH has invited me to Germany the coming weekend, we have taken Thursday and Friday off - I can hardly wait! Wishing you a lovely Christmas, dear. :)

Oh I am so determined to get some pictures of my cats in cute bows this year!

Such a lovely post, made me feel warm and fuzzy and all excited about all of these things that I have to look forward to this month. Although, I am a little daunted by the cooking aspect...I am cooking a huge Christmas breakfast and lunch for my inlaws! Wish me luck :P

Hi sweet girl, thank you very much for your lovely comment. You'll be doing better than me if you can get snaps of your kitties in bows. I've tried since 2008 (the year we got her) to do that with my darling cat, and have had zero luck (she's camera shy at the best of times and loathes having anything on her). Be sure to post some on your blog if you do, I'd love to see them! :)

Best of luck with your dinner for sure. I find that writing out a schedule in advance (for the menu, shopping, prep, and cooking) can really make a large holiday feast (and/or day of cooking multiple large meals) a lot easier to navigate.

Hello Jessica, I just found your darling blog, and became your newest follower. Everything here is so pretty! I look forward to reading your future posts soon. I hope you are enjoying the countdown to Christmas. Love, Chloe xx

Of course, my dear, you're very welcome. I read every comment that I receive, and truly appreciate all of them. In turn I love to comment on the blogs who leave notes for me here, so if you have a blog (or ever start one), please be sure to let me know.

Wow Jessica, what wonderful images you have chosen. It is definitely my favourite time of the year and you have summed up the ideal Christmas season with this post!P.S Can you believe that I have never seen a Charlie Brown Christmas?!! They never show it over here, and when I tried to watch it on Youtube, becAUse of Copyright, the video was played upside down!! The British equivalent to this is the animation The Snowman...have you ever seen it? Its shown every year without fail over here, and when you see that, you definitely know it's Christmas! xxx

Thank you very much, sweet gal. Ohhhh, that's so irksome when you can't view a video in one country from another. I run into that from time-to-time with various videos (and websites - Pandora, I'm looking at you! ;) ), too, as I'm located in Canada. How interesting that they don't show this classic cartoon in the UK - that's too bad for sure, it's so darling. Hopefully you'll be able to catch it one day (if I find a "free for all to view" version online at any point, I'll zip a message your way right away).

Indeed, I grew up with Raymond Briggs's classic tale in both book form and the touching, beautiful animated version. I must say though, it's been some years since I saw it last (I'd venture to guess about 15 or 16). I'll have to keep my eyes peeled this year to see if they're still showing it annually on TV.

I'm Jessica, a lifelong lover of all things antique and vintage, especially those from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

This blog is my visual scrapbook in which I record and share my thoughts on the multitude of sources, people and products that inspire and feed a modern gal's addiction to the past. I also post about the vintage clothes, hairstyles and make-up looks that I adore wearing.

Stay a spell and have a blast as we explore the incomparably fantastic world of vintage history and fashion together.

All images used on this site are credited to their original posters/creators/sources,
however if at any time you would prefer not to see one of your images here, please email me and I'll take it down right away.

PS...I just wanted to say thank you very much for visiting and to tell you that you're equal parts awesome and beautiful.